Speaking of advertising, I think all readers and friends are certainly familiar with it. Nowadays, whether you use traditional media such as newspapers and television, or open various online media, the most common thing to see is probably various types of advertising. But if you want to ask what an advertisement in ancient China looked like? Many friends may be confused: Did there also be advertisements in ancient China? In fact, of course, there were advertisements in ancient China, and the creativity of advertisements is even more than today! If you don't believe me, you can come with me to see this copper plate of the Song Dynasty printed advertisement.
Song Dynasty city well
First, the needle shop in Jinan went to Shanghai
Our story today begins 73 years ago.
The time is 1946, the War of Resistance Against Japan has just ended, and the War of Liberation will not yet begin. After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, many cultural construction work that could not be taken care of during the war was put back on the agenda, such as the Shanghai Museum, the first museum funded by the government in China, which planned to reopen. However, after more than ten years of war, the cultural relics in the museum have also suffered a lot of losses, and if you want to reopen the museum, you must add new cultural relics as soon as possible. So during that time, the gentlemen of the museum began to frequently visit the large and small antique shops in Shanghai and the surrounding areas, trying to find the lost pearls for the museum with their own pair of eyes.
Old Shangbo photo (located at No. 174 Changhai Road, Yangpu District, now changhai hospital image building)
On this day, Yang Kuan and Jiang Dayi, who were working in Shangbo at the time, once again met together to go out to "treasure hunting". Then, in a shop in Shanghai, in an inconspicuous corner, the two gentlemen saw a copper plate, that is, a copper plate in engraving printing. This engraving is basically a square, the area is not large, 13.2 cm long, 12.4 cm wide, and the words "Jinan LiuJia Kung Fu Needle Shop" are engraved above the copper plate. In the middle of the copper plate there is a picture of a jade rabbit pounding medicine, with 4 characters on each side of the picture, and 28 characters under the picture. Although the calligraphy and paintings are slightly rusted, Mr. Yang Kuan still keenly judged that this should be a cultural relic of the Song Dynasty! So the two decisively intervened and bought this copper plate back to Shangbo.
Jinan Liujia kung fu needle shop copper plate
Another ten years later, one day in 1957, Mr. Xu Baiyi, a well-known expert in the history of advertising in the mainland, saw this copper plate when he visited Shangbo. With years of education in advertising, Mr. Xu immediately judged that this copper plate was the earliest printed advertisement with a trademark in the mainland and even in the world. With this recognition, this palm-sized copper plate immediately doubled in value and was included in the predecessor of the National Museum, which was the Museum of Chinese History at that time. Of course, in Jinan, the hometown of the Liu family's kung fu needle shop, a copper plate of a replica was also left behind, which is now stored in the Shandong Provincial Museum.
Shandong Museum (copperplate replica seen by the author from here)
Second, the advertising creativity of Jinan Liujia Needle Shop: the routine is very good
Deep!
Having said all this, how did Mr. Xu Baiyi judge at that time that this copper plate was a physical object of a printed advertisement? This has to start from the graphic content of this copper plate. Earlier with you roughly introduced the content layout of the copper plate, here is a detailed description:
The copper plate is approximately square, and the top is the title 8 characters: "Jinan Liujia Kung Fu Needle Shop". In the middle is a picture of a jade rabbit pounding medicine. There are 4 words on the left and right sides of the picture: "Recognize the white in front of the door, and remember the rabbit". Below the picture is a relatively long advertising slogan, a total of 28 words: "Buy high-grade steel bars, make kung fu fine needles, do not mistakenly use the house, each turn to sell, do not add, please remember white."
Copperplate imprint (shandong provincial museum live shooting)
As mentioned earlier, the size of this copper plate is twelve or thirteen centimeters in length and width, so the advertising paper printed in this way can of course be used as a street to send, but considering that it is a shop that sells needles, it is more likely that it may be used as a product packaging. After all, this size of "pieces of paper", if advertised along the street, some are too small. Understanding the content and use of the copper plate, let's take a look at what "routines" are hidden in this thousand-year-old advertisement.
1, store name
The top 8 characters, Jinan Liujia Kung Fu Needle Shop, obviously this is the name of the needle shop. Presumably, in Jinan Province at that time, there must have been such a physical shop specializing in needles and threads. It is worth noting the word "kung fu" here. The kung fu here is not Bruce Lee's kung fu, but the meaning of hard work and serious work, directly placed in the name of the store, naturally means that the quality of the goods in his shop is superior. If you have seen Zhang Zeduan's "Qingming On the River Map", you should be impressed by the signs of the Song Dynasty City, such as Sun Yang Shop, Wang Jia Luo Jinpi Shop, and so on, such as "Liu Jia Shang Colored Sandalwood Neem Incense", the word "coloring" indicating quality and effect is written directly in the store name. It can be seen that this is not a particularly new practice in the song dynasty. If you go back to a thousand years ago, this Liu family kung fu needle shop in Jinan should also have a sign at the door, or a sign, or a flag, in short. However, in addition to the signboard, there is something else at the door of this Liu family needle shop.
"Qingming on the River Map" Liu family colored with sandalwood neem incense
2, that year that rabbit that trademark
In the middle of the copper plate is a picture of a jade rabbit pounding medicine, and on both sides of the picture, there is actually a sentence engraved on the left and right, that is, "recognize the white rabbit in front of the door as a memory." That is to say, in addition to the store name signboard, this jade rabbit medicine map printed on the advertisement should also have a "high-definition enlarged version" at the entrance of the store. The image of the white rabbit trick medicine should be familiar to everyone, and the natural connection with the white rabbit medicine is the legend of Chang'e running to the moon. Small commodities such as needles and threads operated by Liujia Needle Shop were mainly used by women in ancient times, and images such as jade rabbits, Chang'e, and the moon were also "yin" attributes in the concept of ancient people, which corresponded to women.
Chang'e runs to the moon
At the same time, considering the literacy rate of women in ancient China, the vast majority of women are illiterate. Then the content of the store name or slogan in the form of words can not play the purpose of information transmission. The picture is different, the image is intuitive, easy to remember, and it is easier to fix the image of the store in the cognition of female consumers. From this point of view, in addition to the difference in the legal sense, this picture of jade rabbit medicine has actually played a role in the current trademark to a considerable extent.
Picture of the jade rabbit pounding medicine on the copper plate
3. Design of advertising slogans
In the current concept, the so-called advertising is an information dissemination behavior in which advertisers use the form of payment to persuade the public to buy through mass media. In ancient times, paid or mass media can be ignored, and we can understand advertising as an act of information dissemination that persuades people to buy. In this sense, the copper plate belongs to the slogan, that is, the 28 words below the picture. These 28 words don't look short, the content is quite rich!
First of all, "buying high-quality steel bars, making fine needles, and not using them in the house", this is obviously a wave of commodity quality in a wave of chest beating. In fact, similar expressions are very common in ancient advertising slogans. For example, in the inscriptions of the bronze mirrors of the Han Dynasty, there are often words such as "good manufacturing", "good mirror", "really good" and so on. It's just that the copper mirror inscription has a limited number of words after all, and the paper advertisement printed on the copper plate can write more words and express more content.
Han Dynasty bronze mirror (ring inscription visible in the middle)
Secondly, "each turn to the seller, do not add to the forgiveness, please remember the white." This sentence is very interesting, that is to say, the business of this Liu family needle shop is quite not small, not only doing retail, but also doing a certain range of wholesale business. If there are wholesalers and forwarders who come to him to buy goods, they can be discounted.
Wen Shijun said
About the Copper Plate of Jinan LiuJia Kung Fu Needle Shop, I will introduce it to you here today. In fact, there are many things that can be talked about in ancient Chinese advertising. For example, Zhuo Wenjun, who sells wine, and Hu Ji, who sells wine, can it be counted as a beauty endorsement advertisement? Can trumpets sold along the street and small songs played be counted as sound advertisements? The windward waving sign, the auspicious words in the bronze mirror inscription, is also a kind of text advertising, right?
When people think of ancient China, they will think of heavy agriculture and suppress business, and then subconsciously feel that the merchants and commercial civilization in ancient China were not very developed. In fact, this is also a stereotype, look at these ancient Chinese advertisements, is this not also the performance of our ancient businessmen, wisdom and intelligence?
The pictures used in this article, unless otherwise noted, are from the network search, if there is infringement, please contact the author to delete, thank you!